Veteran Congress Leader ND Tiwari Joins BJP 

In what is being a shot in the arm for the BJP in poll-bound Uttarakhand veteran Congress leader ND Tiwari, 91, and his son Rohit Shekhar on Wednesday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The two joined the BJP at the residence of party president Amit Shah. Tiwari is the only political leader to have become the chief minister of two states - Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. He also served as Minister for External Affairs in Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's cabinet. Tiwari also served as Governor of Andhra Pradesh from 2007 until 2009.

Considered a heavyweight, Tiwari wields lot of influence among the Brahmins of Uttarakhand. Brahmins voters are in large numbers in the state. However, Tiwari has been embroiled in a paternity dispute. Rohit Shekhar for long demanded that he be recognised as the legitimate son of ND Tiwari and even DNA tests confirmed the paternity. Later, Tiwari publicly admitted that he was indeed the father of Rohit.

Tiwari was also involved in another unseemly controversy over massage sessions with some women in the Raj Bhavan of Andhra Pradesh. He had to resign his gubernatorial post because of this.